When did the joker become insane?

[Meow]

Hey guys, I just bought "The Greatest Joker Stories ever told," on ebay and in some of the older comics they make it clearly obvious that the joker isn't crazy. What's up with that? I thought he was always crazy. Does anybody know when he offically became "insane". In Batman #1 he seems pretty crazy...the narrator even refers to him as a maniac, but in some of the other stories he's sane. There's even this one story where he tries to pretend like he's crazy but it doesn't work. :\
How YOU doin?

[BLACKHEART]

Would you be refering to the second he fell into a vat of chemicals? I don't think Joker is insane. Many would argue with me. To better answer your question, buy the Killing Joker and it will answer all of your questions.

[Theking]

I don't think the Joker is insane, I think that there is just a 'chemical' imbalance in his head.

Sure he wants to kill people but look at the way he plans and thinks things out. Do insane people have that well of a working brain?

Maybe I would say insane if he would just do freaky things all the time but you know that he does alot of setup for everything, and that leads to the question "Are picky (attention to detail) people insane?"

TheKing

[Meow]

Err thanks for responding guys, but that's not really what I was asking. I wanted to know when the batman comics starting refering to him as being insane. Like what time period? In the earlier comics he stays in a prison , but in the newer ones he's in an asylum.

[Theking]

oops, sorry, don't find time to read the comics really, or the money

TheKing

[The Guard]

I believe the first time the Joker was DECLARED insane was an old Batman story where he stole a lot of worthless stuff (Wooden coins, a picture of the Mona Lisa), and was placed in an asylum. Batman went undercover, and was bamboozled and KO'd by the Joker, who'd been faking insanity to learn where some guy had hidden the money he'd stolen. He put Batman in a padded cell, and turned on some water. Wayne washed his disguise away in the water when Joker was away, and when Joker returned, he saw Bruce Wayne. He thought he'd discovered Bruce was Batman, but Bruce psyched him out, and the Joker thought he was insane. At the end, Joker was like "But if he's not Batman, then I'M BATMAN! HA HA HA HA HA!" It's a classic.

[CadaverousEyes]

Heh, that story's in the volume he's referring to. But to answer your question, he became a crazed killed again in The Joker's Five-Way Revenge, also in that volume. You should read Mark Waid's essay at the end, it explains quite a lot.